Seriously, who cares, its a bloody expensive hobby!!

Seriously, who cares, its a bloody expensive hobby!!

Shortest answer and possibly the best one. It's not a game nor a sim, it is a hobby, enjoyed by 7 up to 77 years old virtual pilots.

I'll tell all ya'll right now! This is no dam game!! This is serious stuff!!!

 

 

Let's see if I can summarize.

 

The guy who thinks it's a game doesn't care if someone tell him he's simming.  The simmer gets really upset if someone tells him he's playing a game.

 

Gamers literally don't care one bit if someone else wants to dress in a uniform to fly.  At most, it makes them smile.  If a simmer hears about someone flying frivolously, like inverted under a bridge in an airliner, he gets upset, even if he doesn't fly in a uniform.

 

If you frequently tell a simmer that he's inferior because he never flies GA style, and airliners are boring, he'll generally ignore you because he knows damn well he's in the right.  If you frequently tell a gamer that he's inferior because he isn't somehow serious enough, he gets annoyed, and eventually contributes to posts about whether FSX is a sim or a game.

 

Sometimes gamers like simple games.  Sometimes gamers like complex ones.  Sometimes gamers don't care much about how it looks, other times they want it to look as good as possible.  Simmers seem to be only interested in complexity.  Gamers don't mind this. 

 

A question for the simmers:  is the A2A Piper J3 Cub a game or a simulation?  I know the answer gamers will give.

 

Hook

 

 

100% correct?  Oh yeah?  Where are the second and third pilots?  No, not 100% correct at all is it? 

 

I usually do my NGX and 777 flights on a weekend with a beer next to me. While in cruise, I then get up and walk over to my fridge and get more beer if I've finished my previous one, then proceed to descend and do my planned approach to the destination (all while drinking beer).

 

So I'm certain that definitely isn't 100% correct either as I don't think this would happen in RL...

For my GF it is a game, for me it is a simulator, for my friends who stop by and see me following real world procedures with Boeing and talking to co-pilot this is ultimateuberomgjesuschristwhatagreatsoftwareyouhavehere thing.

 

I don't care to be honest. I just want to have more time for it and wish you all the same.

All of you who think this is a sim are deluding yourselves. It is a very good game based on aircraft simulation. It can teach aspiring pilots some of the important parts of flying real aircraft like how to navigate using FMC etc, not the stupid Garmin GPS that is never used on real aircraft. With a couple of exceptions, it does not teach you how to carry out a preflight walk round, if you cannot be bothered with this then you are definitely only playing a game. From joining the RAF at the age of 15 1/2 until I retired age 64 nine years ago, I spent my whole life within the aircraft industry and I can ensure you this is a game, not a sim.

If you want to fly a sim, be prepared to fork out $400 an hour, and true professional pilots still say this is not real enough.

...not the stupid Garmin GPS that is never used on real aircraft.

You are joking, right? Garmin GNS units are used in many, many GA aircraft throughout the world, said GA including many corporate jets as well.

 

Of course, I've no idea whatever what you consider to be "real aircraft..." :unsure:

I usually do my NGX and 777 flights on a weekend with a beer next to me. While in cruise, I then get up and walk over to my fridge and get more beer if I've finished my previous one, then proceed to descend and do my planned approach to the destination (all while drinking beer).

So I'm certain that definitely isn't 100% correct either as I don't think this would happen in RL...

I would say that with a certain level of addon, you are definitely using a "simulation", only in the case above, you are simulating the operation of such while drinking beer. Even if you are flying upside down under a bridge, if the aircraft is coming close to replicating the behavior of the real aircraft then it is further down the spectrum of what can be called simulation of this scenario. At the opposite end, you have the Ctrl-E type airplanes that make little attempt to capture the actual performance, and some kid tossing it around the sky with a joystick probably isn't replicating much of the real world.

 

Certainly P3D is being billed as for "simulation", and the differences between it and FSX, as a platform, are just evolutionary in nature.

 

Some of the people saying dismissively that "it's just a game" would likely contend that anything that doesn't literally rip you to shreds during a crash falls short of the title "simulation" because it lacks some particular aspect of real life.

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean- neither more nor less" said Humpty Dumpty.

"The question is" said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many differnt things".

january

Wow, 6 pages of debate on this !! Lets see if I can bring it to a close by pointing out that the people who made it call it a simulator.  The box cover of FS9 and FSX says in big white letters " Microsoft Fight Simulator " by Microsoft Game Studios in the bottom corner. If Mr Bullmer and Gates call it a simulator then its end of argument ! 

 

Just because it comes out of MS Game Studios it doesnt mean its a game.  If Ford made cars & vans at the same plant  you wouldn't call your Ford Focus a van would you !

 

Once again, a game has an opposition, a winner and a looser which doesnt exist in the sim element of MSFS, this fact seems lost on some people here.

 

Its simply a good  attempt at re creating something that is real for home learning or just enjoyment.  Therefore its a simulator.

Boy oh boy are you guys ever beating this to death!  Smile, shake hands (get a beer if that's what you like) and go fly.

You are joking, right? Garmin GNS units are used in many, many GA aircraft throughout the world, said GA including many corporate jets as well.

 

Of course, I've no idea whatever what you consider to be "real aircraft..." :unsure:

I looking at the MSFX B747, 777, 737 etc fitted with the garmin and I did mention a FMC which all those aircraft have. There are a lot of aircraft fitted with GPS from hand helds in GA aircraft to coupled ones on older aircraft that do not have an FMC but wish to make use of GPS.

But it still is only a game.

 

 

The box cover of FS9 and FSX says in big white letters " Microsoft Fight Simulator "

 

And I've got a t-shirt that says "Nice Guy."  What's your point?

 

Hook

Hmmmmmm......

 

I wonder how many real simulators have timed flour drops, flying through squares and chasing UFOs as part of the training.......

 

Loopy Larry? Landing on a bus?

 

Or do we just pretend that never happened?

 

Because that might bite a bit into the whole serious sim mystique, if we don't edit things like that out of our memories.......